*throptic, noun: a design or a devise created to look as if it serves a functional purpose, but in fact has no purpose other than to make the object on which it is attached to look esthetically better.

I think cars should be beautiful, and you ought to make a car—somebody—Ford, Chrysler, G.M.—somebody’s going to bring out one, and they’ll say, “Wow, look at that,” and that’ll get them all out. Until that happens, they’re a bore.

From the movie, LeMans. This is the same car driven by John Thomas that is featured in the sound files recorded by Mike Parris at Riverside International Raceway in 1980. The first audio file was posted before, but the second one, Four hot laps around Riverside, was recently acquired from driver John Thomas. Great in-car…